Dear MIDAS users,
As from today the official 95NOVpl2.0 release of MIDAS is available
on our ftp accounts.
Best of success and enjoy MIDAS!
- ESO-MIDAS group.
MIDAS 95NOVpl2.0 official announcement
--------------------------------------
1- What's new or upgraded in MIDAS 95NOV ?
2- Platform availability
3- Source and binary distribution of MIDAS 95NOVpl2.0
4- MIDAS 95NOV documentation
5- MIDAS under the GNU General Public License
6- MIDAS on a CD-ROM
7- Technical Support and Network Services
1- What's new or upgraded in MIDAS 95NOVpl2.0?
----------------------------------------------
The major change in the 95NOVpl2.0 release is not a software, but a
political one. After AIPS now also ESO-MIDAS is, from 95NOVpl2.0 on,
available under the GNU General Public License. That means, that not
only binaries of MIDAS but also sources can now be freely distributed
under certain conditions without a prior signed User Agreement.
Sources and binaries of ESO-MIDAS are available in a unique anonymous
ftp account. Our previous restricted "midas" ftp account simply has
disappeared.
Unfortunately and in order to conform with the GNU License we have
edited almost all MIDAS sources, making almost impossible to
distribute a patch file containing the modified files since
95NOVpl1.0. Therefore, all MIDAS Sites are encouraged to retrieve
all files and run the MIDAS installation procedure once again.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
New or fixed in 95NOVpl2.0 (compared to 95NOVpl1.0)
---------------------------------------------------
- Compilation error in PC/Linux 1.2.13
- key=M$EXSISTD(file,descr) crashed for non-existing file on HP
- Bug fixed and needed for EXSAS project
- Workaround for "fseek()" bug in Ultrix 4.4
- Minor error in XEchelle makefile
- Increasing the maximun number of opened files from 20 to 64 in Solaris
- Automatic test procedure for communication interfaces.
- Bug fix causing cursor problems in the command LABEL/GRAPH
- Bug fix for one entry in the identification table (command OVERPLOT/IDENT)
- Error message in case of array overflow (command SEARCH/INVENT)
- Improved help text for the command INTEGRATE/LINE
- Motif GUIs statically linked for PC/Linux (ELF format)
- NEW: Limited support of a World Coordinate System
- Cleanup logging in MIDAS
- Fix bug in the communication interfaces
- Check for LABEL: and MIDAS comm. on same line
- Fix keyword locking
- Speed up CREATE/IMAGE with ASCII import
- New option LIST for CREATE/IMAGE command
- Fix defalut for param "drawflg" in MODIFY/PIXEL
- AVERAGE/IMAGE with input in a cube
- New command OUTDISK/FITS
- New command GROW/CUBE
- Max Desc. size. Now 65535 elements
- Fix COPY/DISPLAY with NOPRINT option
- Fix RESET/DISPLAY in companion mode
- Bug fix in MODIFY/GCUR command
- New command HST/SPEC convertings HST spectra
- Reference to DEFINE/SLIT
- Bug fixed in GUI Echelle for PC/Linux
- Fix REBIN/ROTATE command with angle ~0.0
- Make CGN_DSCUPD more robust
- Fix TUTO/SPLIT command
- Bug solution for command LABEL/GRAPH when string ends with
e.g. "\beta )"
- Fix for incorrect coordinates in registration table in
DIAPH/ROMAFOT command.
- Increase of buffer size to enable object search on larger frame
- Fix for MERGE/TABLE PROJECT/TABLE and COPY/IT commands when
applied to big tables
- Fix in the decompression on-the-fly
- Fix column check in COMPUTE/COLUMN command
- Fix to avoid stripes in LUT when there are ther graphical
applications running.
- Upgrade of LYMAN context
- Fix table input for DRAW/CROSS
- Add more symbols to LOAD/TABLE
2- Platform availability.
-------------------------
MIDAS 95NOVpl2.0 has been installed and verified on the following
platforms:
- SUN SunOS/4.1.3 - HP HP-UX A.09.01 - PC Linux/1.2.13 (ELF)
- SUN SunOS/5.4 (1) HP HP-UX A.10.01 - DEC OSF1/V3.2
- SG IRIX/5.2 - IBM AIX/V2.3
All installations were done with the native C and Fortran compiler
with the exception of SunOS 4.1.3 where also the GNU C compiler
was used.
(1) MIDAS 95NOVpl2.0 for HP HP-UX A.10.01 will be officially
supported in March 1996.
(2) MIDAS 95NOV port to VMS and Open/VMS is almost completed.
A new patch in March 1996 will be announced and distributed to
support these platforms.
3- Source and binary distribution.
----------------------------------
95NOVpl2.0 is also available in binary format for all supported
platforms. Binary copies of MIDAS are already compiled
and ready to run. Installation is reduced to just the tuning of
some configuration files.
Source and binary copies of 95NOVpl2.0 are available in our
anonymous ftp account:
- Ftp host: ftphost.hq.eso.org (134.171.40.2)
- Ftp account: "ftp". Password: <Your mail address>
- Directories: /midaspub/95NOV/sources (MIDAS sources)
/midaspub/95NOV/linux (PC Linux/1.2.13)
/midaspub/95NOV/hp_ux (HP HP-UX A.09.01)
/midaspub/95NOV/alpha_osf (DEC OSF1/V3.2)
/midaspub/95NOV/ibm_aix (IBM/AIX 3.2)
/midaspub/95NOV/sg_irix (SG IRIX/5.2)
/midaspub/95NOV/sun_os (SUN SunOS/4.1.3)
/midaspub/95NOV/solaris (SUN SunOS/5.4)
- Files: README.<platform>
95NOVpl2.0.tar.Z
For a proper installation of MIDAS sources follow the procedure
of the installation document (installunix) provided in PostScript
and DVI format.
MIDAS is distributed on all platforms with Graphical User
Interfaces using the Motif dynamic shared libraries.
For those platforms on which Motif is not distributed with the
system (e.g. Linux and SunOS 4.1.3), MIDAS GUIs with the Motif
library statically linked are also available in our anonymous ftp
account:
- Directories: /midaspub/95NOV/linux/gui (PC Linux/1.2.13)
/midaspub/95NOV/sun_os/gui (SUN SunOS/4.1.3)
- Files: README.gui
95NOVpl2.0.gui.tar.Z
4- MIDAS 95NOV documentation.
-----------------------------
ESO-MIDAS documentation is available in Postscript and DVI format
(eventually also in HTML format) from our "anonymous" ftp account:
- Ftp host: ftphost.hq.eso.org (134.171.40.2)
In our "anonymous" account:
- Ftp account: "ftp". Password: <Your mail address>
- Directory: /midaspub/95NOV/doc
- Files: README.doc
vol1.ps.Z ESO-MIDAS Volume A: System
vol2_ps.tar ESO-MIDAS Volume B: Data Reduction
vol3_ps.tar ESO-MIDAS Volume C: Command Description
env.ps.Z ESO-MIDAS Environment.
agldoc.tar.Z AGL Documentation
ididoc.ps.Z IDI Documentation
midas-faq.doc.Z ESO-MIDAS Frequent Asked Questions
midas-html.tar.Z ESO-MIDAS complete documentation in HTML
In particular cases printed copies and updates of documentation
can also be obtained from ESO. If you absolutely need hardcopies
of the documentation please contact the User Support Group at
ESO/Munich.
5- ESO-MIDAS under the GNU General Public License
-------------------------------------------------
ESO-MIDAS is a copyright protected software product of the
European Southern Observatory, and provides general tools for
image processing and data reduction
As of the 95NOV release, patch level 2.0, ESO-MIDAS is available
under the GNU General Public License. This means that the
ESO-MIDAS system is available, free of charge and can freely
redistributed on certain conditions. As a consequence of this
distribution policy User Agreements between research institutes
and ESO will not apply as of ESO-MIDAS release 95NOVpl2.0 and will
not be prolongated when they expire.
A short statement if the GNU General Public License is included in
all relevant ESO-MIDAS files and follows below. The full GNU
License text is included in the ESO-MIDAS release as separate
text file.
--------------- ooo -----------------
Copyright (C) 1995 European Southern Observatory (ESO)
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the
License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 675 Massachusetss Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Corresponding concerning ESO-MIDAS should be addressed as follows:
Internet e-mail: midas@eso.org
Postal address: European Southern Observatory
Data Management Division
Karl-Schwarzschild-Straße 2
D 85748 Garching bei Müchen
GERMANY
--------------- ooo -----------------
6- ESO-MIDAS on a CD-ROM
----------------------
Our current schedule anticipates the generation and distribution of
the patch level of MIDAS 95NOVpl2.0 on CD-ROM by the end February
1996, or shortly thereafter.
The distribution policy for this CD-ROM has not been decided yet
but will be announced in this mailing list in the near future, as
soon as the CD-ROM is available. The CD-ROM will include:
- ESO-MIDAS 95NOVpl2.0 sources
- ESO-MIDAS 95NOVpl2.0 binaries for:
- PC/Linux (1.2.13 -ELF)
- HP-UX 9000 A.09.01
- Sun/SunOS 4.1.3
- Sun/Solaris 2.4
- Silicon Graphics IRIX 5.3
- Alpha/OSF1 V3.2
- IBM/RS6000 AIX 2.3
- Calibration data for all platforms above
- Demo data for all platforms above
- ESO-MIDAS 95NOVpl2.0 ready to run from CD-ROM on PC/Linux
- ESO-MIDAS 95NOV documentation in:
- Postscript format
- DVI format
- HTML format
- Complete Slackware distribution 3.0.0 for PC/Linux
- Xephem 2.8 (sources and PC/Linux binary)
7- Technical Support and Network Services:
-------------------------------------------
User support services for MIDAS can only be granted to registered
MIDAS sites, i.e. institutes and organisations and their employees,
not to individuals. In order to register your site, you should
provide us with the following data concerning your site:
- Name of the institute of organisation or institute;
- Type of organisation (University/Commercial, Government);
- Postal address and telephone number;
- Name of the MIDAS contact person;
- E-mail address of the MIDAS Contact person;
- Short description of the computer hardware, including
Operating System(s) display devices and other relevant info;
Send this information by e-mail, fax, or surface mail to:
ESO
Data Management Division - User Support Group.
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2,
D-85748 Garching bei Muenchen
Germany
E-mail (Internet): midas@eso.org
Telefax: +49-89-3202362
A WWW registration form is in preparation and will be activated
soon. Please check the ESO-MIDAS WWW page on a regular basis:
http://http.hq.eso.org/midas-info/midas.html
Other public services (see also the WWW pages) include:
- Anonymous ftp: ftphost.hq.eso.org (134.171.40.2)
- WWW: http://http.hq.eso.org/midas-info/midas.html
- help desk: http://http.hq.eso.org/midas-info/midas-prform.html
- mailing lists:
midas-announce (for official announcements)
midas-users (for general discussion).
To subscribe send an e-mail to "midas-announce-request"
or "midas-users-request" with the text "subscribe" in
the body of the mail.
- The ESO-MIDAS Courier: Newsletter of the MIDAS User's
Community. Distributed by traditional mail, but also
available on the WWW and by anonymous FTP account.
Editor: rwarmels@eso.org
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